Review and Recap of Cobra Kai (Youtube Red Series)

Thirty four years ago the Karate Kid took the world by storm. There were legendary character like Mr. Miyagi, Daniel LaRusso, Johnny Lawrence, and Sensei John Kreese. The original story was so well written and played out I never thought it could be topped. The second Karate Kid we got to know more about Miyagi when they traveled to Okinawa to defend his dying father’s honor. In both movies we saw Daniel grow as a person and as a karate student. Karate Kid 3, The Next Karate Kid(with Hillary Swank) and The Karate Kid remake(Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith) really soured with me. It didn’t have that organic feel that the first two did and in my opinion hurt the franchise overall. Fast forward thirty four years and Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence renew their rivalry after all these years. Get ready to go on the journey of the Cobra Kai and Miyagi style karate.

Episode 1

The show starts off with the ending of the All Valley Tournament in 1984 when Daniel uses the Crane Kick to defeat Johnny. They show Johnny in present day drunk on his living room floor of a mediocre apartment. Johnny had really fallen off path and deals with the pain of not having his mother in his life. He also deals with the humiliation he received from Sensei Kreese and the loss he suffered thirty four years earlier. He is barely getting by while working a job he hates and ultimate gets fired from. He’s first introduced Miguel because they live in the same apartment building and is some what of a talkative kid. Johnny runs into Miguel at the party store after losing job and watches four kids from Miguel’s high school beat him up. He takes matters into his own hands and beats up all four of them, which is reminiscent of how Miyagi saved Daniel from the original Cobra Kai. Johnny does have a son he hasn’t seen in sixteen years and he’s very troubled. We know Johnny has a wealthy stepfather who bailed him out of jail and gave him a check to get out of his life, which leads Johnny to do something with the check.

Episode 2

In the second episode we learn a lot more about what Daniel LaRusso is doing these days. He is married with two children and owns a very successful car dealership. He’s still very corny, charismatic and somewhat cocky to a fault. Daniel’s daughter Sam is in high school and hangs out with a group of girls who also come from wealthy familie. She use to hang out with girls who weren’t popular but then starts hanging around people who think they are better then others. Sam is interested in Kyler, which is same kid who beat up Miguel at the strip mall. We find out Johnny and Miguel work on opening a Cobra Kai Dojo together so Johnny can teach Miguel how to fight and defend himself. Early on there are two things I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Johnny and Miguel and also the flashbacks from the original movie. I thought showing the flashbacks really played an important part of this series. When Daniel is driving to work one morning he notices that a new Cobra Kai Dojo has open and his face shows a terror and fear because of what happened to him in the past. Towards the end of the episode Kyler is over at the LaRusso’s and confesses that an adult beat him up. He goes into Cobra Kai’s Dojo and confronts Johnny about this and says it’s not over.

Episodes 3 and 4 

The third episode they recreated some nostalgia of the Halloween Dance when Miguel dressed up as skeleton like Johnny did. This time it was Miguel that got beat up in a four on one assault. Meanwhile Johnny is hanging up flyers all over school to join Cobra Kai. Before Daniel could stop he saw Sam and Kyler running off into an empty classroom. Daniel embarasses Sam and Johnny ends up finding Miguel in the bathroom unconscious.  Johnny then walks the streets drunk feeling bad about Miguel when he trades his beer cans for spray paint can. This leads into the fourth episode where Daniel sees one of his billboards spray painted with an obscene gesture on it. During this episode Daniel is dealing with a rival car dealer stealing his commercial ideas and Sam realizing Kyler’s true colors. Miguel’s mom is very upset that he lied about karate and doesn’t want him doing it. Meanwhile, Johnny tries to make amends with Miguel and also tries to set things right with his son. At the end of episode four Miguel’s mom agrees to let him train again and Cobra Kai seems to be coming back in full force.

Episodes 5 and 6

Miguel’s training picks up and gets more intense while Johnny continues to struggle with the bills. It was also in this episode Aisha shows up and wants to learn karate because she’s being bullied by other girls. Johnny’s son Robby is dealing with own issues as he wrestles with whether or not he stays with his mom or goes and lives with his dad. Daniel is also dealing his own internal issues with anger and being condescending about the past. He visits Miyagi’s grave to refelct and flashblack to when Miyagi talked to him about balance. The episode ends with Daniel opening his personal Dojo back up and paying tribute to his teacher. The music with this segment was nostalgic and absolutely gave me goosebumps. This leads us into episode six where Cobra Kai is full and Johnny is trying to toughen up all the students. While Johnny is trying to create a successful Dojo his son Robby looks to be successful at LaRusso’s car dealership. Sam starts struggling in school because of vicious rumors being s spread about her. This leads to Miguel befriending here and trying make her feel better. The episode ends with Robby starting develop a relationship with Daniel and Johnny realizing his faults.

Episodes 7 and 8

I had goosebumps at the beginning of episode seven because Robby starts doing the same chores that Daniel did under Miyagi. During these segments they played the nostalgic music again and that’s the one aspect I loved about these episodes. Miguel is starting to fall for Sam and Robby is tempted by his friends to steal from the dealership. When Johnny tries to enter the Cobra Kai’s into the All Valley Tournament he is told they were banned. When Johnny goes to the board meeting he finds out that Daniel is on the board. Miguel is on a date with Sam where they rehash the love scenes that Daniel and Ali had. Eight is great because we finally had another old school character come back in Daniel’s mom. Johnny also reveals his relationship with Ali and his version of what happen after he realizes Miguel is dating Sam. During this episode Robby continues his training and is being shown everything that Daniel was taught. Johnny finally has closure with his stepdad and writes a letter to Robby apologizing for the past. The show ends with Daniels cousin Louie and some friends smashing and torching Johnny’s car, which leads us into the final two episodes.

Episodes 9 and 10

Some things change but then there are things that always stay the same. Johnny shows up to Daniel’s house and wants to fight. This results into a really funny scene where the two have breakfast with Daniel’s wife Amanda. It’s Amanda who tries to get Johnny and Daniel to make peace that leads into some really funny scenes. Some of the truths about what happened at the beginning of the season started to come out. While Daniel and Johnny are bonding the Cobra Kai members decide to throw a party on the beach. I think the moral of the story in this episode was don’t drink too much whether you’re an underage kid or an adult.  Once Daniel and Johnny came home Johnny realized that Robby had been training with Daniel, which lead to an explosive lead in to the final episode. The final episode surrounded around the All Valley Tournament. In the finals of the tournament it was Miguel taking on Robby. In the finals, Johnny is very conflicted about watching his son getting beat by his student. In the end, Miguel beat Robby but Daniel took Robby back as is student and said he was going to open up Miyagi Do Karate. The way the final episode ended with Sensei Kreese appearing and Sam training in her fathers Dojo I am certain that there will be a second season. If it does happen I personally cannot wait for the second season to come out.

The Cobra Kai series was absolutely phenomenal and I loved every minute of it. It took a lot of the old school stuff and mixed it in with the new culture of today. This told the original story in a different way that had a lot of drama and great storytelling a long the way. I do find it ironic that one of the executive producers on the series is Will Smith. It was Will’s son Jaden who played in the remake of The Karate Kid which generated a lot of negative reviews from fans and cast members of the original movie. This reminds of the Rocky series. Rocky 5 put a negative hit on the franchise so they came back with Rocky 6 and Creed, which out of this world better. If you are a fan of the original Karate Kid, I would highly suggest you watch this series. If you are someone who is interested in this series but know nothing about basic story behind then I would suggest watching the first three Karate Kid movies before you watch the series. Also please be advised that because of the language that this series might not be suitable for younger kids. The Karate Kid is back and it’s back in a big way. Cobra Kai may never die but Miyagi’s teaching will always rise to the top. Mr. Miyagi once said, “Better learn balance. Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home.” I am going home with the thought that this was an excellent series that teenagers and adults can learn from. The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai is now going to reach a whole new generation of people. Hopefully people will learn from these very important lessons that Karate Kid and Cobra Kai teaches us. “Never put passion in front of principle, even if you win, you’ll lose.”